Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) Releases Q2 2024 Earnings Guidance

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) updated its second quarter 2024 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 1.620-1.720 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 1.540. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Ecolab also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 6.400-6.700 EPS.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of ECL stock traded down $1.20 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $224.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 320,182 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,209,253. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $224.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $202.21. Ecolab has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $231.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. The company has a market cap of $64.32 billion, a PE ratio of 46.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.74 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 47.60%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Ecolab from $225.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Wednesday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $233.59.

About Ecolab

Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries.